Our First Potato Sprout

This morning the first of our potato sprouts peeked through the soil and straw to stretch towards the sun. This was the only sprout I found so far. The no dig potatoes were planted on June 25th…to see how we planted our taters click here.

Its been almost a month since we planted and hopefully they will all start to sprout now. We should be getting more weeper hoses soon, so that should take care of watering the potato patch. As of now I water it each morning but always fear I’m not giving it enough. I know that all the mushrooms we have blasting through the straw is a good indication that there is plenty of water being delivered, but sometimes I’m not so sure. I know that before we installed the weeper hoses around other parts of the garden, I think the plants were just kind of tolerating my presence. I think I was giving them just enough water to stay alive, but now, the weepers deliver a constant drip for an hour to each plant. I can’t say that I ever stood in one place for an hour watering anything. At most, only a half hour is spent putting water in a newly prepared hole that is awaiting a tree or shrub planting.

Mushrooms blowing holes through the straw in the potato patch

Two weeks ago the mulberry trees were transplanted onto our property from a neighbor, click here to see the post, and the large mulberry tree is holding on for dear life. It still has juicy leaves and actually just started to form new buds. I think and hope it will make it! The odds were against these trees for several reasons…first, its always best to transplant or move an established tree in the winter during its dormancy, second, most of the roots system was removed from both trees, third, the large mulberry tree had a very large gash in the trunk where more than 1/2 of the bark came off. The tree is still holding on though. The smaller mulberry tree doesn’t have any juicy leaves at all, but I’m still holding my breath for it. Here is the smaller mulberry tree:

Desert Bird of Paradise is doing well and in bloom. I planted it in the courtyard to replace the apricot tree that never made it.

How many drakes do we have? Do you see Ferdinand? He is the one with the white spot on his head and the curled tail…but what do I see? Two more of what looks like the beginning of drake hood. So far, upon listening very carefully to their call sounds, I’ve counted five drakes so far, yet only three are starting to become more evident as they develop the curl in their tail. The females are getting VERY LOUD, and the males seem to have that soft hush to their voices. When we are sure of the sex, we’ll start naming more of them.